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Monday, 9 March 2015

Bangladesh orders N Korean envoy out
for smuggling gold

No charges were lodged against the North
Korean official because of his diplomatic
immunity [Creative Commons/Mohammed
Tawsif Salam]

The ministry summoned North Korean
Ambassador Ri Song Hyon on Monday and gave
him a 72-hour deadline to send the diplomat,
Son Young Nam, back home, the official said on
condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the issue, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Local media, citing unidentified sources,
reported on Monday that Son, the embassy's first
secretary for commercial and economic affairs,
had already left the country secretly on Sunday
night.

The 27-kg of undeclared gold was seized from
Son when he arrived last Thursday at Dhaka's
Hazrat Shahjalam International Airport, police
said.

No charges were lodged against Son because of
his diplomatic immunity, and he was eventually
handed over to officials from the North Korean
Embassy, said Rashidul Islam Khan,
commanding officer of the airport's armed police
battalion.

Khan said the diplomat arrived on a late-evening
flight from Singapore and was passing through
the "nothing to declare" channel in customs
when he was stopped. An official asked to scan
his carry-on luggage and he refused, Khan said. "We challenged him and found the gold in his
luggage. We seized the gold," he said. Khan said the diplomat admitted under
questioning that he was carrying the gold
illegally.

The North Korean Embassy could not be
reached on Monday night for comment. Sanctions imposed on North Korea over its
nuclear and missile programmes have largely
cut it off from the international financial system,
and it may have wanted to sell the gold to gain
badly needed hard currency. North Korean diplomats have also been accused
in the past of involvement in counterfeiting and
drug trafficking.